Microsoft Parallel Extensions to .NET Framework 3.5, June 2008 Community Technology Preview

Parallel Extensions to the .NET Framework is a managed programming model for data parallelism, task parallelism, and coordination on parallel hardware unified by a common work scheduler. Parallel Extensions makes it easier for developers to write programs that scale to take advantage of parallel hardware by providing improved performance as the numbers of cores and processors increase without having to deal with many of the complexities of today’s concurrent programming models. Parallel Extensions provides library based support for introducing concurrency into applications written with any .NET language, including but not limited to C# and Visual Basic.

.NET StockTrader Sample Application

This application is an end-to-end sample application for .NET Enterprise Application Server technologies. It is a service-oriented application based on Windows Communication Foundation (.NET 3.0) and ASP.NET, and illustrates many of the .NET enterprise development technologies for building highly scalable, rich "enterprise-connected" applications. It is designed as a benchmark kit to illustrate alternative technologies within .NET and their relative performance.

The application offers full interoperability with J2EE and IBM WebSphere's Trade 6.1 sample application. As such, the application offers an excellent opportunity for developers to learn about .NET and building interoperable, service-oriented applications.

The new download includes the automated setup for the .NET StockTrader 2.0 and the Configuration Service 2.0, with associated technical documents that explain how to run and reconfigure the .NET StockTrader service-oriented application. Additional documentation in the download provides the steps necessary to implement the Configuration Service 2.0 in your own applications and services for central configuration management; distributed caching; load-balancing and failover across clustered service nodes. The new sample includes:

· .NET StockTrader 2.0 composite Web application and middle tier services.
· New modes for Advanced Web Service (WS-*) message-level security and interoperability with a variety of non-Microsoft platforms via the SOA architecture.
· Configuration Service 2.0 with technical guides and samples.
· Capacity planning tool for running multi-agent benchmarks against the .NET StockTrader services.
· WSTest 1.5 Web services benchmark.

Microsoft .NET Framework (v3.5) 3.5 SP1 Beta

Microsoft .NET Framework redistributable package installs the .NET Framework runtime and associated files required to run applications developed to target the .NET Framework.

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Client Profile (BETA)

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Client Profile (BETA) contain the .NET Framework Client profile needed for the installation and distribution of .NET Framework Client applications. The .NET Framework 3.5 Client Profile (BETA) contains a subset of features contained in the full installation of the .NET Framework. The subset of features are the Common Language Runtime, ClickOnce, Windows Forms, Windows Presentation Foundation and Windows Communication Foundation.

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service pack 1 Beta

.NET Framework version 3.5 Service Pack 1 provides the following new features and improvements:

• ASP.NET Dynamic Data, which provides a rich scaffolding framework that allows rapid data driven development without writing code, and a new addition to ASP.NET AJAX that provides support for managing browser history (back button support). For more information, see What’s New in ASP.NET and Web Development.
  
• Core improvements to the common language runtime that include better layout of .NET Framework native images, opting out of strong-name verification for fully trusted assemblies, improved application startup performance, better generated code that improves end-to-end application execution time, and opting managed code to run in ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) mode if supported by the operating system. Additionally, managed applications that are opened from network shares have the same behavior as native applications by running with full trust.
  
• Performance improvements to Windows Presentation Foundation, including a faster startup time and improved performance for Bitmap effects. Additional functionality for WPF includes better support for line of business applications, native splash screen support, DirectX pixel shader support, and the new WebBrowser control.
  
• ClickOnce application publishers can decide to opt out of signing and hashing as appropriate for their scenarios, developers can programmatically install ClickOnce applications that display a customized branding, and ClickOnce error dialog boxes support links to application-specific support sites on the Web.
  
• The Entity Framework is an evolution of the existing suite of ADO.NET data access technologies. The Entity Framework allows developers to program against relational databases in terms of application-specific domain models instead of the underlying database models. For more information see Getting Started with the Entity Framework. The Entity Framework introduces some additional features, including support for new SQL Server 2008 types, default graph serialization of Entities, and the first broad public release of the Entity Data Source. With this release, the Entity Framework supports the new date and file stream capabilities in SQL Server 2008. The graph serialization work helps developers who want to build Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services that model full graphs as data contracts. The Entity Data Source provides a traditional data source experience for ASP.NET application builders who want to work with the Entity Framework.
  
• LINQ to SQL includes new support for the new date and file stream capabilities in SQL Server 2008.
  
• The ADO.NET Data Services Framework consists of a combination of patterns and libraries, which enable data to be exposed as a flexible REST (Representational State Transfer)-based data service that can be consumed by Web clients within a corporate network or across the Internet. The ADO.NET Data Services Framework makes data service creation over any data source. A conceptual view model of the underlying storage schema can easily be exposed through rich integration with the ADO.NET Entity Framework. Services created using the ADO.NET Data Services Framework, as well as compatible Windows Live (dev.live.com) services, can be easily accessed from any platform. For client applications running on Microsoft platforms, a set of client libraries are provided to make interaction with data services simple. For example, .NET Framework-based clients can use LINQ to query data services and a simple .NET Framework object layer to update data in the service.
  
• Windows Communication Foundation now makes the DataContract Serializer easier to use by providing improved interoperability support, enhancing the debugging experience in partial trust scenarios, and extending syndication protocol support for wider usage in Web 2.0 applications.
  
• The .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server (SqlClient) adds new support for file stream and sparse column capabilities in SQL Server 2008.

Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 (x86) LangPack

Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 (x86) Language Packs contain translated text, such as error messages, for languages other than English. Without the installation of a Language Pack, these messages are displayed in English by default. Multiple language packs, each for a different language, can be installed on a single computer.

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Service Pack 1 LangPack

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Service Pack 1 Language Packs contain translated text, such as error messages, for languages other than English. Without the installation of a Language Pack, these messages are displayed in English by default. Multiple language packs, each for a different language, can be installed on a single computer.